E3 2018 Hype Starts Now

16 Jun 2018

E3 2018 has come and gone and I’m already reveling in the fruits announced this year. What fruits?

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 DLC - Challenge Mode - This DLC dropped yesterday and while its small in size, it’s reeled me really strongly back into XBC2. It adds a modest amount of content: two new Blades and a Challenge Mode that throws you into challenging (and sometimes tricky) combat situations. Why the hype? Those two Blades are Shulk and Fiora from the original Xenoblade Chronicles! I’m really feeling it.

• Octopath Traveler Prologue Demo - Also releasing yesterday was the Prologue Demo for Octopath Traveler. This demo lets you play the first chapter of each of the eight protagonists in the game. You are limited to three hours of play, but the progress you make in this demo will carry directly over to the full game when it comes out on July 13th. This is awesome as it gives you an efficient (no time wasted since progress carries over) try it before you buy it experience. This isn’t the first time the Octopath developers have impressed me: they put out a different demo back in September, conducted a survey about it, and made some quality-of-life changes to improve the overall game experience.

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 DLC - Torna: The Golden Country - This DLC will let us play through the fall of Torna that precedes the events of XBC2 by 500 years. This expansion appears to be large enough that it warrants a physical print with some gorgeous cover art to boot. Even though this expansion appears to be playable separately from the original story I hope at some point you’ll be allowed to carry over characters and Blades from the expansion into the main game. 🤞

While there’s a lot of exciting stuff on the horizon (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate), stuff further out on the horizon (Cyberpunk 2077), and things that may not exist on any horizon (Final Fantasy VII Remake) it’s exciting to have some stuff out already and more stuff coming out very soon!